Although the various phenomena that involve multiple males involved with one female, have always been fascinating to anthropologists, there does not seem to be one common explanation for polyandry. This failure has raised questions about the similarities between the different societies in which this type of behavior is observed in. From the point of view of Berrman (1975), polyandry does not have a same manner in all societies and the basis, function, costs and consequences of polyandry must be studied individually in each society (Goldstein, 1981).
Polyandry is the rarest form of marriage and has been observed in only four societies: the Toda, the Marquesans, the Nayar and the Tibetans (Lee,1982). Even in polyandrous populations, most of the marriages seem to be monogamous. However, cultural definition for an ideal
marriage in these societies is polyandry. It is often presumed that men have more tendency to marry more than one woman and not women to have more than one man at the same time, that is why polyandry termed unnatural (Lee,1982). There are various factors that have an effect on a society to adopt polyandry.
Extreme poverty has been among the main factors that may influence a society to practice polyandry. A polyandrous marital system may serve as coping mechanism to lessen hardships caused by resource scarcity in societies where families cannot support population growth (Lee,1982). This system works by regulating the population size. The justification is that a woman in union with more than one man cannot produce any more children than a woman with one man in a given duration of time and thus very few offspring are produced as a result.
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...with an individualistic approach. Younger siblings will therefore defect from the polyandrous marriage system in considerable numbers (Levine, 1988). The population will grow as a result since more woman of reproductive age will exposed to risk of conception. This negative feedback pattern
observed in Tibet served as an efficient process to quickly maximize or minimize population growth depending on resource availability.
Works Cited
Goldstein, Melvyn C.
1981 New perspectives on Tibetan fertility and population decline. American Ethnologist 8(4): 721-738, 325-327.
Lee, Gary.
1982 Family structure and interaction: a comparative analysis. 2nd ed. Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press
Levine, Nancy E.
1988 The Dynamics of Polyandry: Kinship, Domesticity and Population on the Tibetan Border. Chicago: University of Chicago.
...ȧ’s objective for writing this non-fiction excerpt was written to get the readers to see the perspective of someone who is in a polygamous relationship, is living in a community society, and for us to understand the abnormality around us. Ryan and Jethȧ presented their argument by first opening up with a simple way to get our attention and then the book ended by showing the readers how polygamy causes problems in a relationship. The authors started with the theme “everyone is different” by mentioning how some villagers would eat herbs, insects and parts of an animal that citizens today would not eat. Then, the two authors spoke of community and nuclear family within different culture of the past, and about being involved in a polygamous or monogamous relationship. In the end, the author brought the reader back to reality by summarizing the book in the last chapter.
All the way through Migdim's incident with arranged marriages, we can understand the old customs that has to do with marriage. It is obvious that, although women were believed to be obedient, they were capable to effectively convince men. Yet, today there seems to be a sign toward polygamous marriages that are eventu...
Western world convention dictates, primarily through religious teachings, that a marriage should be comprised of one male and one female. Polygamy is legal in some countries, under Islamic law, and in some African nations. Based upon their religious and cultural foundations, the system of polygamist marriages has stood successfully for centuries in those countries.
Beside the social stigmatism to polygamy, monogamy has many benefits for the human race. Although some may argue, as humans, we aren’t exactly designed to be a perfectly monogamist species, it my personal opinion that we have the adept skills to make monogamy work and be a valuable way of life. Of the about 4,000 mammal species on Earth, only a few dozen form lifelong monogamous pair bonds (Jeffries). That equates to approximately 3% of all mammals participating in monogamous activities. Professor Roger Rubin reports in his paper “Alternative Family Lifestyles Revisited …Communes”?, family...
Fletcher-Stack, Peggy. “Polygamy: Not as Rare as You May Think.” Beliefnet. Beliefnet, Inc., 2011. Web. 19 Dec. 2011. .
Polygamy: “A marriage form in which one individual has multiple spouses at the same time; from the Greek words' poly (“ many”) and Gamos (“marriage”)”. Examples of this would the whole history of Africa like no other continent in the world. African societies have managed to see children being a structure of prosperity and a family that has more children were considered to be more powerful.
Then the article connects to how fraternal polyandry is similar to nineteenth century marriage in England. Even though they are similar, Tibetan “believe that in this way fraternal polyandry reduces risk of fission, monogamous marriage among brother need to necessarily precipitate the division of family estate” (“When Brothers Share a Wife”). Then the article goes into how the author of this article, Melvyn C. Goldstein, asked the Tibetan people on why they marry this way. Some said it makes the family more stable and other said that is keeps conflict from affecting
In today’s world many people have had different views and ideas on what polygamy really is, is it morally wrong? In this paper you are going to learn what polygamy is, who practices it, the affects that it has on children, wives and the husbands, risk factors, and most importantly why it is morally wrong.
The Western Religious leaders and moralists believe only one spouse for life is the highest form of marriage. Some of the most "primitive" peoples are strictly monogamous in their ideals, while some "highly advanced" cultures have moved away from the stri...
Mention the concept of polygamy in any “civilized” gathering, and you just may be able to see the shiver of repulsion that ripples through the crowd. By substituting the word “polyamory” in, you will be able to circumvent this reaction – but only because everyone is staring at you in baffled silence instead. So we begin, as always, with definitions.
The human population growth rate is an alarming issue that brings with it irreversible consequences, that will likely effect the way of life for future generations to come. With the serious incline in population statistics comes catastrophic processes such as global warming and deforestation that have major ‘knock on’ ramifications. It’s issues such as these that need to be considered when we think about the growth of the human population, and we must take into account why these issues are occurring. We must also explore the options available to us that may assist in limiting the problems, or eliminating them all together, to provide a better place, not only for us in existence now, but also those who will walk this earth in the future decades and centuries to come.
Many people would happily accept an opportunity to have their daily stress reduced by employing help with not only their children but also with daily household responsibilities of cooking and cleaning. Especially in this fragile economic state the average family living in America cannot afford the luxury of hiring a house cleaner, cook or nanny. However, there are polygamists families in America have the abilities of multiple adults contributing to the same household because of the lifestyle choice of having multiple spouses. The extra help comes at a price for woman, by having to share her husband with other woman and raising her children in the difficult and uncommon lifestyle. Polygamy takes a total acceptance and understanding of it by the mothers, in order for polygamy not to have a negative psychological impact on her children. Children are the innocent victims of polygamy; consequently, they grow up witnessing a tense environment filled with their mother’s insecurities and rivalries with the other wives, which sequentially end up harming the child in the end. Furthermore, polygamy can be psychologically damaging to children because of the increased rates of not only welfare fraud, domestic violence, and underage marriages but also child abuse and neglect.
For thousands of years until today, the best way to officially be the partner of someone is through marriage. People have practiced marriage for thousands of years. Many cultures see marriage as the best method to celebrate the love of a couple until death tears them apart. “Marriage establishes and maintains family, creates and sustains the ties of kinship, and is the basis of community” (Rowe 2). Marriage is a concept bigger than ones happiness
“Polygyny is the marriage of one man to more than one woman at the same time” (Powell 167). This structure of marriage is prevalent among the families of Okonkwo’s village, and Okonkwo himself has three wives. A man with many wives was looked upon in a better light than a man with only one wife or no wife at all. In the novel, Okonkwo is said to have had a hard start as a young man because “he neither inherited a barn, nor a title, nor even a young wife” (Achebe 18). Men view wives as a means to gain titles and respect as well as extra labor power for thier combines. Women bring a number of benefits to a man: sexual services, reproductive power, labor, farms for women’s crops, in-laws with goods, land, and livestock. Men typically have only one wife if they lacked wealth (Amadiume 30-31). This is a feminist issue because the people of the village treat women as property that can be inherited. A feminist critic sees how polygyny devalues women and treats them the same as animals. According to Nigerian law, a woman is categorized “as an object who is not quite human” (Bazza 176). In Nigeria, if a woman is involved in polygyny and her husband divorces her for whatever reason, she cannot remarry and often turns to prostitution or extreme poverty for herself and her children (Kunhiyop 44). There is no good that comes from polygyny for
In today’s society the assumption asserts that there must be only two adults integrated in a relationship, however in polygamous environments, having more than one spouse is traditional. Some may argue that Polygamy is simply just an alternate lifestyle. This, however, ceases to be true. Young girls are being forced to marry older men and sometimes relatives. Little boys are often abandoned because it appears to be competition for older men. Children are victims of sexual and physical abuse. Whereas, for women, they generally become stripped of their money and experience competition against the multiple wives a husband. Although Polygamy is viewed as immoral by society, the main focus point should be saving young children and women because